LCDs are becoming popular for not only home entertainment purposes, but are now being used as informational/advertising displays in both indoor and outdoor locations as well as within moving vehicles subject to substantial shock. When used for information/advertising purposes, the displays may remain ‘on’ for extended periods of time and thus would see much more use than a traditional home theatre use. When used for extended periods of time and placed within vehicles subject to shock, durability of the components can become an issue.
Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) contain several layers which work in combination to create a viewable image. A backlight is used to generate the rays of light that pass through what is commonly referred to as the LCD stack, which typically contains several layers that perform either basic or enhanced functions. The most fundamental layer within the LCD stack is the liquid crystal material, which may be actively configured in response to an applied voltage/charge in order to pass or block a certain amount of light which is originating from the backlight. The layer of liquid crystal material is divided into many small regions which are typically referred to as pixels. For full-color displays these pixels (color groups) are typically divided into independently-controllable regions of red, green and blue subpixels, where the red subpixel has a red color filter, blue subpixel has a blue color filter, and green subpixel has a green color filter. Each subpixel may be controlled by a grid of intersecting conductors which can apply a specific voltage to each subpixel to create an image.
An LCD will not function satisfactorily without an appropriate and properly-functioning set of source and gate drivers and associated conductor lines. If a conductor were to fail, then the entire column or row of the LCD may cease operations. Further, if either the gate driver, source driver, or the power supply to either of these drivers were to fail, the entire LCD may fail to create an image. While this may be a simple inconvenience when LCDs are used for entertainment purposes, when used for information or data displays this can be very costly. For example, LCDs are now being used in aircraft cockpits as well as the instrument panels or display(s) in ground vehicles and marine equipment. In these applications, when there is a failure within the control system, the LCD may no longer display the important information for the vehicle/aircraft and controls may cease to operate. These situations can be undesirable not only to the passengers of the vehicle/aircraft, but also other soldiers/team members who are counting on this part of the mission.
Some control systems have a limited life span, and eventually their performance may suffer. Some systems may quickly fail simply due to a manufacturing defect or may fail due to shock/forces applied to the aircraft or ground vehicle. Currently when this occurs, the entire LCD device must be manually replaced. This is expensive, and is often time consuming. Alternatively, the LCD device could be removed from the display housing, and the degraded or faulty system elements could be manually replaced. This is typically even more costly, and involves extensive manual labor. In currently known units, this also requires virtual complete disassembly of the LCD to gain access to the electronics. This complete disassembly is not only labor intensive, but must be performed in a clean room environment and involves the handling of expensive, delicate, and fragile components that can be easily damager or destroyed, even with the use of expensive specialized tools, equipment, fixtures, and facilities.